The 80/20 rule applies to SEO. A few core factors will get you the most results. I’ve found this to be especially true in less competitive spaces (such as local SEO). Sometimes I find myself geeking out over insignificant factors. I have to stop and ask myself, “Is this worth my time?” Recently, a member
Don’t Let Google Rewrite Your Page Titles
It’s probably not great to have Google rewrite your titles for you, is it? Looks like the sweet spot for titles is 20-60 characters. Statistically, Google doesn’t seem to rewrite titles very often in this character range. Just ran a scan on a local site of mine with Screaming Frog. Only 46% of page titles
Diversifying Your Traffic Sources Beyond SEO
Initially building your brand off the shoulders of Google isn’t a wrong move. I’ve done it countless times. But at some point, it’s wise to expand beyond SEO. Building up other traffic sources makes the asset you’re creating more valuable because it’s more resilient. (And ironically enough, it helps your SEO, too.) At some point,
4-Way Link Swap Group Invitation
If you have an agency with clients, please check out our new 4-way link swap group on Discord. It is private by invitation only. You’ll need to be a member of the Local Marketing Freethinkers group for access. The link swap meet officially starts: Monday, July 27 at 12 Noon PST. I’ll be sending out
Hacking QDF with WordPress Plugins
Can we hack QDF with WP plugins? Having content that is regularly updated not only boosts crawl rate, but Google gives preference to pages which are continually updated for _some_ queries. If you think a query you’re trying to rank for will benefit from freshness, here’s an idea. I noticed there’s a couple “scheduled content
Are Most SEOs Bad Marketers?
There was a popular poll in SEO Signals Lab yesterday where over 400 voted. I have an unpopular opinion to share. Most SEOs are too busy on client projects or building affiliate sites that they fail to set aside some time each month to improve the asset that’s most important: Themselves. But, here’s the good
The Ahrefs Content Gap + Sick Analytics Wombo Combo
The “Dying Pages” screen on Sick Analytics will tell you what pages need help ranking. Your first inclination might be that these pages need more links but that may not be true. The content could be lacking. In this 4 minute Loom video, I’m going to show you a 1-2-3 combo using Sick Analytics, Ahrefs
How Much Does User Behavior Play in Google’s Machine Learning Algorithm?
Maybe more than we realize. We can use a little investigation to see an example happening right now. Google search the city keyword “Portland” 50% of the organic spots are dominated by protest stories. There’s a video carousel devoted to Portland protests. And not to mention, the news stories that tower at the very top
3 Content Frameworks for Capturing High Converting Organic Traffic
A user in SEO Signals Lab asked, “What is the best way to get traffic with blogging?” Below are my 3 favorite content frameworks for capturing high converting organic traffic. The focus here is high conversion. Your average SEO is after the highest volume keywords. But, high volume doesn’t mean high conversion. Volume doesn’t necessarily
My Notes on B2B Content Syndication Channels
I ran a poll last month in the SEO Signals Lab group asking if SEOs syndicate their content. About 2/3rds said, “No.” Here’s something interesting. The app Buffer does something called resyndication. It is copy/pasting their article on other sites. They’re big sites, but that’s it. They pull almost 1,000 _extra_ visitors a day by
